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A five-person committee will spend the next six months examining city council’s compensation. There’s even talk that the volunteers may seek input from the public about how much the mayor and councillors should receive. Frankly, given the state of the economy, there’s no need to invest a lot of time debating whether the city should change the […]

The number of people working in Alberta remained flat in Alberta in September, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. According to the federal agency, there were 1.96 million employees in the province for the month, unchanged from August. But employment remains well below year-ago levels in the province — with 63,000 fewer people working […]

The resource sector continues to bear the brunt of a decline in payroll employees across Alberta, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. Overall, there are 60,000 fewer people working in the province compared with a year ago, according to the federal agency’s latest payroll survey, marking a three per cent decline. But the […]

Premier Rachel Notley is in Calgary today where she will give a “State of the Province” address as the province that continues to struggle with a slumping economy, a ballooning deficit and worrisome unemployment figures. In her last State of the Province, delivered in Edmonton last November, Notley maintained her government wouldn’t respond to plunging […]

The country’s labour force beat expectations last month by gaining a healthy 67,200 net new jobs, with most of the increase concentrated in part-time and self-employed work, Statistics Canada said Friday. Despite the surge, the agency’s latest jobs survey said the national unemployment rate didn’t budge — remaining seven per cent for the second straight […]

I recently bumped into an acquaintance whose time in Alberta’s energy sector, including running a few companies in later years, has been measured in decades. I asked if he thought Alberta’s present downturn was “1986” — the last time the oil price plunged, or “2009” — i.e., the economic crisis, from which Alberta quickly bounced […]

Anyone who doubts the oilsands’ value to the nation’s prosperity should read Statistics Canada’s latest quarterly report, which finds the economy had its worst performance since the global financial crisis of 2009. The federal agency said gross domestic product — the total value of goods produced and services provided — fell 1.6 per cent during the second quarter of […]

Alberta’s export activity remained mostly flat in July as the oil price collapse continued to curtail shipments across most sectors. Statistics Canada said Friday that provincial exports totalled almost $6.1 billion, down slightly from the previous month, but off more than 27 per cent from a year earlier. Energy exports fell to $3.9 billion, less than half the total of two years […]

A marginal decline meant the number of EI recipients in the Calgary area fell for the first time in nearly two years in June, but the number of people receiving benefits in the city remains near a historic high. There were 23,900 people receiving benefits in June, down by 0.6 per cent — or 140 — from […]

Group layoffs in Alberta have topped 12,000 workers in 2015, mostly in the struggling energy sector. The province received seven layoff notices of at least 50 employees last month, affecting 750 employees. Through August, 12,302 workers have been laid off go in 81 group notices, said Pam Sharpe, spokeswoman for Alberta’s Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour ministry. “Of […]

The more than 900 workers who lost jobs at Penn West Petroleum and ConocoPhillips as the oil price slump worsened Tuesday didn’t need Statistics Canada to tell them the country’s in a recession. Their pink slips — the latest among more than 35,000 issued in the oil and gas industry this year — tell the story […]

It’s official. Canada has been in a recession this year thanks in large part to a downturn in the oil and gas sector. Data released Tuesday by Statistics Canada indicated that the country’s gross domestic product fell in the first two quarters of 2015 which meets the technical definition of what constitutes a recession. The […]

The per capita value of residential building permits issued in Calgary in September outstripped all other major metropolitan areas in the country, Statistics Canada figures show. The numbers demonstrate the muscle of Alberta’s oil-fuelled economy, with Edmonton placing second in per-capita permit values.

Wholesale sales in Alberta rose to a record $7.15 billion in September, Statistics Canada said Thursday. It sales grew 0.1 per cent from August and 8.8 per cent from a year ago. In Canada, wholesale sales rose 1.8 per cent to $54 billion in September. That was also up by 8.1 per cent year-over-year. Building material and supplies […]

The number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries in Alberta has dropped compared with a year ago, says Statistics Canada. The federal agency reported Thursday that there were 28,760 people in the province receiving benefits in September, down 3.9 per cent or 1,160 people from last year. Nationally, EI beneficiaries were down by 3.5 per cent […]

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